World of Confusion – Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva

I really wanted to like this book, and it started off appealingly, but as I read on it became more and more disjointed. I suspect that was the author's intention, with the book partially set amidst a geological and political disaster, but I eventually just lost interest. I skipped through to the end, and I was never really clear on where it was all going. The end didn't clarify or wrap up anything for me. It was disappointing. I was hoping to discover a new Latina voice I could embrace.

This is a family story of three generations of women of Guatemalan heritage living in Boston: elderly grandmother Candelaria, her daughter Lucia, and granddaughters Paola, who disappeared and is now back and calling herself Zoe, while living as part of a bizarre women-only brainwashed cult; the second daughter is Bianca, who became an archeologist but was pushed out of her Ph.D. program after an affair with her program advisor; and the youngest, Candy (short for Candelaria) a recovering heroin addict and film buff, who works in an art house cinema. The granddaughters' lives become intermeshed through their attachments to men and others. There's a kind of magic realism quality to the book, but it's more nightmarish than mystical. 

This was a novel I chose as one of my Mark Twain American Voice in Literature candidates to read and rate in the initial round of that selection. Unfortunately I cannot recommend that it goes forward in the competition.

A Family Odyssey – Kantika by Elizabeth Graver

This is a beautiful, moving work of fiction that is primarily based on the life of the author Elizabeth Graver's grandmother, Rebecca Cohen Baruch Levy (born in 1902), and other family members. Graver incorporated family stories and photographs, but created a narrative that incorporates what she has conceived of their inner lives and intimate experiences. 

The Cohens were Sephardic Jews who left Spain as a result of the Inquisition and settled in Constantinople, Turkey. For several hundred years, under the Ottomans, they prospered financially, living a refined upper class lifestyle, and practiced their religion. After World War I, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the development of modern Turkey (which was declared a republic in 1923), their fortunes declined, and the relatively secure position of Jews changed. The Cohens lost their money and business (partly due to Rebecca's father's poor business practices and gambling), and they eventually were forced to move away from what had become Istanbul, and resettle in Barcelona, Spain, living in much reduced circumstances.

The rise of Fascism and other right-wing movements in Spain leading to the Spanish Civil War made life dangerous for Jews. Rebecca, whose first marriage was a failure and who became a widow with two sons upon the death of her husband, traveled to Cuba to meet Sam, a widower, and potential second husband. Sam and Rebecca married and traveled to Queens, New York, where they joined his mother and disabled daughter. Her sons eventually joined them and they had children together. 

The novel recounts all this in rich detail and we share in the author's description of how she imagines Rebecca's thoughts and feelings, through the following decades of her life with Sam, the tragedies of World War II, the loss of family members, and especially the challenge of caring for and encouraging Luna, Sam's daughter. 

It is a remarkable story, painful in many places, but ultimately triumphant. Rebecca must have been a truly extraordinary person and a true "woman of valor". 

This is the fifth of the eight novels I plan to read for the 2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and certainly one of my two favorites thus far. I hope to complete the final three by the mid-May deadline. 

From the Mines Onward – American Ending by Mary Kay Zuravleff

Yelena was the first of her family to be born in America, in 1899. When we first meet her in 1908, she is living with her struggling parents and younger siblings in Marianna, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town southwest of Pittsburgh, though in their isolated and impoverished circumstances, it would seem light years away, though it is perhaps only 20 miles distant.

Yelena's family are Old Believer Russian Orthodox, a highly conservative sect, which doesn't allow married women to cut their hair, dancing or card playing, though all the adults, especially the men, indulge heavily in vodka. Roles are highly defined, and the men and their sons, some barely teenagers, work in the dangerous mineshafts from the early morning hours until they stagger home for dinner and then drink themselves into a stupor. The women cook, clean, sew, and perform other household tasks in primitive conditions, and there is never enough money, especially after the men indulge at the taverns. Tension and violence, domestic and otherwise, is high, due to the possibility of a mine cave-in at any time.

The town is also strictly broken down into ethnic and religious enclaves: the Russians, Poles, Italians, and "Blacks" each have their own neighborhoods. The Russians have brought a strong anti-Jewish attitude with them and they, and the Poles, their Catholic rivals, still believe that the Jews were Christ-killers.

The children, for as long as they are allowed, attend school together where they are taught by an Irish schoolmistress from New York. Yelena and her immediately younger brother, Kostia, are two of the school's brightest pupils, but they are weighed down with chores. Still, they attempt Still, they attempt to learn as much as they can. Their mother, Katya, values education, and in fact speaks several languages, and reads and writes in a beautiful script. Her husband Gregor is illiterate, though not unintelligent.

When Gregor and Katya immigrated from Suwalki in Russian Poland, they left behind their two oldest daughters with Katya's parents. Katya saves and saves to bring them to America and once they finally arrive, Yelena's role in the household is forever changed, and she resents that. She is also forced to leave school before the fifth grade, though she continues to try to educate herself.

The book progresses through her remaining child and teen years, and her early marriage to Viktor, one of a set of brothers also from Suwalki. He was the eldest, born abroad, though his younger brothers were born in America, so were citizens from birth. Hard work in the mines, food allergies and asthma, which were not well understood, have made his health precarious. Like Yelena, he is as well-read as a person of limited schooling can be.

Yelena and Viktor press on to make a life together. They leave Marianna, eventually moving to Erie, where there is other work, but it is still a struggle with Viktor's poor health. Meanwhile, Yelena has become an avid supporter of the women's suffrage movement, and has a hero in Rose Winslow, formerly Ruza Wenclawska, a suffragist and labor movement leader, also from Suwalki.

In 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, and it was ratified in 1920. Yelena is at home with her two young children when a census worker arrives to interview her. The young woman, a college girl working the census as a summer job, is surprised that Yelena, whose name she Americanizes to Elaine, as a married mother of two, is just 20, her age. The two women could not be more different. Yelena tells her that she is a natural-born American but when the woman finds out that Viktor is a still unnaturalized alien, she changes Yelena's nationality to alien, much to Yelena's shock. The law of the time, it turns out, was that American women who marry foreign nationals were no longer citizens...but a different set of rules applied to men.

...that law was the Expatriation Act of 1907. It said that any American woman who married a foreigner would assume his nationality. The 1922 Cable Act partially reversed the 1907 law, but it wasn't until 1940 that all aspects of the 1907 law were rescinded and women and men had independent citizenship that could not be stripped away by marriage. These immigration laws as they applied to the period of this book were explained in an appendix after the last page, with the 1940 information here my addition.

This novel was also one of my Mark Twain American Voice Prize in Literature choices to read and rate. I hope it will continue forward in the judging. It was vividly written, deeply felt, with strongly crafted characters, and provided a historical and geographical context that made it highly accessible. The author based this novel on the experiences of her own family in Marianna, now, per Wikipedia, a town of around of 400 residents. A major explosion killed over 150 miners in 1908, and is described in the book. The mine passed through several rounds of ownership and eventually closed in 1988.

Caught in a Web – The Dissident by Paul Goldberg

A very hard book to read, and like, in my opinion. Another of my choices to read and rate for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, I had very different expectations, based on the brief synopsis provided by the prize organizers (and the rather deceptive jacket copy). 

Set in 1978, as the Soviet Union was beginning to disintegrate, it is a story about Refuseniks, especially one in particular, Viktor, a Jewish man who is stuck in Moscow, since the government has refused his visa request to emigrate to Israel. Of course, this was a common situation at that time with many Jews seeking to leave for Israel or the United States. I knew a few who managed it, and spent some time getting a taste of their world in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, visiting the shops and restaurants. 

Since it is the Soviet Union, he gets caught up in the impenetrable web of a KGB murder investigation, after he comes upon the scene of the crime, and is seen leaving the site. Viktor's hero is none other than Henry Kissinger, certainly a highly controversial figure on his own, but who is supposed to be arriving for a state visit when the murder, which involved an American, took place. The investigation must be resolved before Kissinger's visit, as it will be a diplomatic issue.

As Winston Churchill said, Soviet Russia is "A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.", and that is certainly true of this novel. Perhaps obtaining a view of that warped world was the author's point, but I just couldn't go along. 

In my Mark Twain reviewer's scoring form, I said that this book did not represent an American voice, but while that's not entirely correct, the form does not provide a lot of space to elaborate. The author is a Russian immigrant who came to the United States as a teenager, so while you could say his is one of many hyphenated American ethnicities writing in the United States today, with the setting of this book in Moscow, it is very far away from what I find to be a relatable tale or an accessible point of view. 

A Sweet Treat – Dangerous Curves Ahead by Sugar Jamison

A mostly-lighthearted romance novel with a few twists to make it more interesting and unconventional. 

The main character, Ellis, is a former attorney who practiced in a high-powered firm in the city but returned to her much smaller university town where she has opened an apparel business focusing on the needs of plus and other hard-to-fit women. Ellis, an attractive woman of plus dimensions herself, has recently broken up with a man who put down her appearance and made her feel bad about herself.

Ellis has a very conventionally attractive but emotionally immature older half-sister, Dena, a feminist college-professor mother, and a scientist father who is loving but somewhat on the Spectrum. Ellis was adopted by her parents, who are very supportive of her many accomplishments.

Mike, the man she falls for, has a ladykiller reputation, and had briefly dated Dena in the past, though the relationship never advanced to sex. Dena also moves from relationship to relationship, always seeking attention and affirmation from men.

Ellis and Mike meet (actually re-meet) in an adversarial encounter. How that evolves, along with Ellis's business, is the story, and it's a fun (and sexy) one. 

The audiobook version was entertaining and well-performed. 

Perfectly Titled – Onlookers: Stories by Ann Beattie

These somewhat-connected stories are set in Charlottesville, VA in the aftermath of the 2017 White Supremacist riot and during COVID. The privileged characters that inhabit them are mostly unlikeable and feel almost entirely one-dimensional. 

I was interested in reading this book since the setting is a familiar one to me from multiple visits during business trips of the 80s and 90s, and what happened there in 2017 was especially shocking against that cultured, liberal environment. 

That being said, I have never been a fan of Ann Beattie, but I thought after so many years I might change my opinion. I had always found her writing to feel very detached and cold, filled with people who don't seem to connect, but now I get the feeling that that is reflective of her worldview, and I find that very sad.  

Trapped in Their Own Web – Hope by Andrew Ridker

This novel by Andrew Ridker was one of my choices to read and rate for this year's Mark Twain American Voice in Literature award. Our group of readers was presented with a lengthy list of nominations. Each person must choose several books to read and rate (rather than review). Once this reading period is over, the selections that garnered positive ratings will go on to the next round. 

This book captures a unique cultural segment of American society – the contemporary secular Jewish family...not about the Orthodox or the various groups of Hasidim in Crown Heights, Williamsburg, or Borough Park, not about the Holocaust, not about mid-twentieth century Brooklyn or the Lower East Side of Manhattan, or about the immigration of Eastern European Jews in the late 19th and early 20th century, which are subjects that have been endlessly covered by many authors over the years, and are usually what we find in books about Jewish people.

While the milieu of upper middle class Brookline, a close-in suburb of Boston, will not be familiar to many, Ridker gets inside it so thoroughly that we feel we know these people, nearly all of whom are Jewish. The author very skillfully takes the characters from what first appeared to be clichés to something much deeper and more profound. The writing is exemplary. It addresses the moral ambiguity of modern American life without preaching. 

In brief, the book covers one year in the life of the Greenspan family. Husband and father Scott is a respected cardiologist, wife and mother Deb is a former dancer who is devoted to liberal causes, daughter Maya works in publishing in New York, and son Gideon is a pre-med student at Columbia. Each of them is faced with a personal crisis that threatens the entire family's status quo and shakes their stability, but the chain of events is set off by financial problems that Scott tries to solve by falsifying the information he provides for clinical trials, which he thinks will pay him the money he needs to extricate himself and his mother, Marjorie, from poor financial choices...until he gets caught.

Almost Clueless –The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

A book club choice that received mixed reviews in our discussion: I would normally have returned it to the library after the first 25 or so pages, but I like to honor my book club reading commitments. I've enjoyed many works of historical fiction that are written around the life of real-life person, but this one felt a bit flat. To me, it was clear that Agatha Christie's staged disappearance in 1926 was partly a publicity stunt, and partly a move of revenge against her husband, who had just demanded a divorce. It generated a vast amount of publicity so Christie was successful in grabbing the attention of the public while she dealt with her husband's infidelity and what comes across as his mental cruelty towards her.

The author, Marie Benedict, specializes in bringing the lives of obscure or somewhat-forgotten women to light in her novels. I previously read her book about Albert Einstein's first wife, which claimed that she (also a physicist) was responsible for the Theory of Relativity. I recall that I didn't care much for the book, and found it somewhat unbelievable. Benedict also wrote a novel about the actress Hedy Lamarr, who was also an inventor and scientist – and much more interesting to me. I haven't decided as yet whether or not I'll read it.

Insight into a Distant Time and World – Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

A fascinating look into the lives of (mostly) upper-class women during the Ming Dynasty (15th century) in China. Tan Yunxian lost her mother at an early age and was raised by her wealthy maternal grandparents, who were both doctors, and were training her in their profession. Chinese medicine was far more advanced in many ways at this time than Western medicine, and this well-researched novel brings us into a world where male and female doctors (who existed, but were rare) played very different roles. Women were also midwives but this was not a profession practiced by upper-class women, though midwives played an important role in all women's lives.

Yunxian was "married out" at 15, to the son of another even more wealthy family, who lived in a vast compound. Not only did she have to leave her beloved grandparents, but also her only friend, Meiling, the daughter of a midwife. While women played subservient roles to the men in their lives, and men could take multiple wives, concubines, and consorts, when a young wife moved into her husband's family home, she soon learned the hierarchy of the women in that household, which would be headed by the wife of the most senior man.

The societal roles and rules of China, especially of the upper classes, were extremely rigid, especially for women and girls. Every aspect of appearance and behavior was scrutinized.

In this novel, we follow Yunxian through all of her life stages, her marriage and children, her medical studies and eventual practice, her relationships with her mother-in-law, the other women in the household and so much more. The writing is so rich, exploring her physical, emotional and mental states, and we are introduced to the Chinese terminology used for the female body, its functions, and development through the stages of aging. The author includes highly-detailed descriptions of the settings, the furnishings, the foods, clothing, and of the herbs and materials Yunxian uses in her medical analysis and practice. The reader is immersed in all aspects of Yunxian's inner and outer life.

It was fascinating to look through this window into such a sophisticated culture, which was amazingly advanced, elaborately structured, and so far beyond what most of Europe would have known at the time. At the same time, the author creates a deep feeling of sympathy and understanding for Yunxian and the challenges she faces and confronts.

A satisfying and illuminating book – highly recommend!

Sister Saga – Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

This is an affecting novel that examines a family of four sisters, their parents, and William, the man who first marries Julia, the oldest sister. There are references to Little Women, as the sisters occasionally try to cast themselves as Meg, Jo, Amy, or Beth, in their conversations, but their mother is definitely no Marmee, and their father no Mr. March. William is nothing like Laurie, in terms of his personality, though he is an orphan, if not literally, then in the sense of his complete estrangement from his own family (and no kindly grandfather figure to take him in).

The Padavano sisters grew up in Pilsen, a working-class area of Chicago. Their father, Charlie, is a kind-hearted man with the soul of a poet, but he is a poor provider and too much of a drinker, so the family constantly struggles to make ends meet. Rose, their mother, is a devout Catholic, who throws herself into tending her backyard garden to help grow food to help feed the family. Her wish for her daughters is that they all attend and graduate from college, something she didn't manage, as she became pregnant with Julia before her marriage.

Julia is a true go-getter, organized, ambitious, and determined to create a successful life for herself with help from William, whom she meets in college at Northwestern. William is an unusually tall, thin young man who loves and plays basketball, which was his escape from a loveless childhood. William had an older sister who died as a toddler, when he was an infant, and his parents never recovered from the loss, leaving him to grow up feeling that it was he who should been the one to have died. At first he is all too willing to let Julia take over his life and decide what he will become. They marry and Julia sets the course, but eventually it all falls to pieces when William suffers a serious breakdown.

Sylvie, the second sister, is the apple of her father's eye. She loves books and reading, and works at the local library branch. She and Julia are so close that they fall asleep in each other's arms on the sofa when Sylvie visits Julia and William during Julia's pregnancy.

The other two sisters are twins: Cecilia and Emmeline. Cecilia becomes a mural artist and sculptor, and Emeline is the nurturer of the family.

When William walks out on Julia and their baby daughter, he is in the depths of depression. His suicide attempt is thwarted at the last minute by Sylvie and his basketball friends who find him in Lake Michigan at the last moment. He and Sylvie had already found a bond which both had suppressed, but they ultimately marry after Julia and William divorce, and Julia moves to New York with their daughter and cuts contact with her family.

It is Sylvie's love that saves William, but it is ultimately William who brings the family back together. Love, family bonds, and caring are the crux of this novel, and while this review may cast it as a soap opera, it is far more than that. It is an enjoyable and moving story, despite the sadness of certain events. Highly recommend!

Out of Brooklyn – Neil Diamond: His Life, His Music, His Passion by Laura Jackson

Neil Diamond is one of the most successful singer-songwriters in American popular music, the winner of multiple Grammy awards, a Kennedy Center honor, and a Golden Globe. He's been inducted to Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. Some of his songs, including "I'm a Believer", and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" were huge hits when covered by other artists. 

As a long-time fan, I was interested in reading this book that takes him through about 2010. There wasn't a lot of new territory covered, but it did make me want to revisit his music catalog with the hope of hearing some  albums and watching some videos that were new to me. 

I wouldn't call this biography particularly insightful, but it was a quick and easy read, and includes some attractive photos. 

 

Rest in Peace – Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton

This is the first in a series that introduces a character beloved by many, Agatha Raisin, a 50-ish London career woman who sells her successful PR agency and purchases a cottage in the picturesque Cotswolds, near Stratford-on-Avon, the home of William Shakespeare. 

I liked Agatha quite a bit, relating to her as a fellow career-minded woman who worked in a similar profession. But, and this is a big but: Unfortunately, the plot and cliché-ridden descriptions of village life kind of left me cold. If I hadn't been reading this book for my online mystery book club, I would have returned it to the library. Having spent a fair amount time in England with relatives, and having visited the Cotswolds, Stratford, and many other areas of the Midlands, especially around the time this book was published, 1992, I was not particularly taken by this overly cozy novel. It was just too much "cute" for me.

My library copy was a First Edition, which must have been rushed out, because it was chock-full of egregious editing errors. On several pages, in multiple places, Agatha somehow became Angela, and there were similar goofs. So distracting!

PS: During my mystery book club discussion of this book, which had a mixed reaction, other members shared that their later editions were just as sloppy – the errors had not been fixed. Really? Wow...

Danger and Devastation in Japan – The Kizuna Coast by Sujata Massey

Even though this is the most recent in Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura mystery series, it is my first read, so I'll be going back to the first one and going forward from there. I love her other series set in 1920's Bombay, and this book was equally great, though so different: current-day Japan. Two very different settings and heroines...such versatile writing.

Rei is alarmed when she receives an anguished call from her former employer/mentor and friend, Mr. Ishida, just after he is injured in the tsunami that followed the massive 2011 Tōshuko earthquake, both of which killed and injured many, leaving huge amounts of devastation and causing dangerous damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant resulting in a radiation contamination zone. She decides to leave her home in Hawaii and her husband, Michael, to help her friend since he has no relatives or others he can call on. Michael, meanwhile, is called to Japan to assist in disaster recovery work.

Mr. Ishida became caught up in the tragic events when he left his antique business in Tokyo to go to an auction at another dealership in what became the earthquake zone. His young apprentice Mayumi, a young avant garde lacquer artist, was to care for his dog, Hachiko, but when Rei arrives at the antiques store, she finds the dog left inside and the young woman gone.

Rei takes Hachiko, and they travel as rescue volunteers to the site of the devastation. She locates Mr. Ichida who has had a head injury. She begins to search for Mayumi and other victims, with the assistance of Hachiko, and once he is sufficiently recovered, Mr. Ishida joins in.

Mayumi's family own a lacquer arts business, where she was training before they had a falling out. Mayumi had taken a number of rare and antique family pieces with her, and apparently was hoping to sell them to finance a program at an art school where she could learn the techniques she could use in producing her own designs. 

Now that Mayumi is missing, confusing circumstances begin to emerge and it is hard to tell who is trustworthy and who isn't. Rei is focused on finding Mayumi on behalf of Mr. Ishida, but even though she speaks and looks Japanese, she encounters both skepticism and criticism equal to her own concerns about the people who were closest to Mayumi. 

How will Rei solve the mystery and stay safe at the same time? The answers are only to be found by reading this intricate, stylish, and intriguing novel. 

The Mountains of Umbria – Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith

It's always a joy to find a "new" writer and learn that they have already published multiple books of interest. That's especially true for me when the books are set in Italy, my favorite country abroad, and in other atmospheric and appealing locations. 

Return to Valetto revolves around history professor Hugh Fisher, a widower with a grown daughter. His Anglo-Italian family, the Serafinos, are some of the last residents of Valetto, a dying village in Umbria. His grandmother, a centenarian, and his three elderly aunts reside in a large villa there with a small cottage on the property that he inherited on the death of his mother, who was the youngest sister.

There's a problem, however: a woman, Elisa, is "squatting" in the cottage, which she maintains was bequeathed to her family by Aldo, Hugh's grandfather, who left his family during World War II as a partisan fighting the Nazis in Italy's north and never returned. Elisa's mother was hidden as a child at the villa during the war, and later returned to her own village where Aldo, wounded in the war, was cared for by her family. In gratitude, he wrote a letter that explained his wishes, but the Serafinos doubt its authenticity.

When Hugh comes to Valetto for a visit, he is thrust into the middle of this conflict, and over the course of its resolution, uncovers the secrets of his family and the village, and its affect upon both over the decades since the war. 

The book is richly atmospheric, and engaging with vivid descriptions of the setting, the characters, and their stories, yet is deceptively subtle as it pulls the reader deep into their hearts and minds. 

I'll be looking for more novels by Dominic Smith on my next library visit. For readers looking for a comparative author, his style reminds me a bit of the work of Mark Helprin, another favorite writer whose historical novels include one set in Italy (A Soldier of the Great War), or of the rich atmospheric detail of Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Ginni. 

 

Eighteen Voices – A Paris All Your Own: Bestselling Women Writers on the City of Light, edited by Eleanor Brown

A mixed bag of essays on Paris by women writers. Some were certainly more appealing (at least to me) than others. 

My picks, alphabetized by author:

Investigating Paris by Cara Black

Thirty-four Things You Should Know About Paris by Meg Waite Clayton

My Paris Dreams by M.J. Rose

The Passion of Routine by Jennifer L. Scott

Paris Alone by Maggie Shipstead was my favorite: The author writes about a time when she had received funding for residency in a Paris complex for artists and writers, where she could write her book, and she did, indeed, while spending nearly all of that time alone with her work and thoughts, something she was quite comfortable with and that I can completely understand. When speaking of social encounters at cocktail parties, trade events, and other events of the publishing life, she quotes another author, unnamed, who tells her, "You're a gregarious shy person," ... "You can do the sociable thing, but you don't draw power from it the way real extroverts do. It takes something out of you." The next time someone asks me if I am an introvert or an extrovert that is what I'll say – I'm a gregarious shy person.

Paris Is Your Mistress, by Ellen Sussman

A Myth, a Museum, and A Man by Susan Vreeland 

Generations of History – The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa

This novel is about four generations of women and has multiple settings: Nazi Germany, Cuba during both the Batista and Castro regimes, New York, and the reunited Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and into the near present.

Ally is a beautiful young German poet in Berlin who has a relationship with Marcus, a Black German jazz musician, while Hitler and his Fascism is sweeping the country. Marcus eventually disappears and is presumed dead. Ally has given birth to a daughter, Lilith, a brilliant child whom she realizes she must hide away since the child is a Mischling – of two races – and forbidden and hated by the Nazis and their policy of racial purity. The two go out only by night where Lilith's darker skin tone and hair texture are not on display. 

Very painfully, Ally concludes she can only protect Lilith by sending her away, and the child joins the Herzogs, a Jewish couple on the ill-fated SS St. Louis on its way to Cuba, where they are some of the very small number allowed to enter that country, despite its promise to take in the ship's large number of Jewish refugees. The St. Louis will also be rejected by FDR's government, and returns to Germany, where its remaining passengers will be murdered in the concentration camps.

Lilith is raised by the Herzogs and eventually she and her closest friend, Martín, fall in love and marry. Martín is a Cuban air force  pilot and his family is close to the Batista government. The two have a daughter, Nadine, but Martín is killed when Castro takes over. Lilith, through contacts in the Catholic church, follows her mother Ally's path, and arranges for Nadine to be sent to Queens, New York where she is raised by a couple there – the man is a veteran of World War II, and his wife is a German immigrant he met while serving abroad. The wife hides a terrible secret.

Nadine inherits her mother's intelligence and becomes a scientist. She is multi-lingual and moves to Germany, where she marries Anton. They have a daughter, Luna, whose skin color echoes her grandmother's. As an adult, Luna, always a voracious reader and writer, convinces Nadine to explore her family history, something she has long avoided.

This is a complex story – part family saga, part historical epic, part study of the complexity of racial, religious, ethnic, and sexual preferences. It's beautifully written, and examines many difficult, challenging topics many authors, and readers, may choose to avoid, but there is much to learn here. 

I would also encourage readers not to skip the Author's Note following the end, which provides  background on some of the issues raised in the text, the first two paragraphs of the Acknowledgements, and the extensive Bibliography. This author truly did his homework... 

Back Then – Desperately Seeking Susan directed by Susan Seidelman

I am happy to say that the 1985 film "Desperately Seeking Susan", a modernist take on the classic screwball comedy, has lost none of its charm, grit, whimsy, or subtle feminist appeal. New York City, however, is very changed since then. One could argue that the cleaned-up city is a safer environment, and that may be true – certainly it's much more pleasant to ride on subways that are air conditioned in summer, heated in winter, and are nearly graffiti-free, despite the overblown handwringing over the far-reduced crime rate of today vs. what we dealt with back then – but you could drop me (in the guise of my younger self) into the East Village that I knew back then and I'd be a happy camper. Familiar aspects of the city that once was – pay phones on every block, personal ads in newspapers, and storage lockers in the Port Authority Bus Terminal are integral to the advancement of the plot but they are all gone now. I preferred that tougher but more individualistic city scene than the more homogenized place New York feels like today. 

The movie starred Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, and Aidan Quinn, with Robert Joy and John Turturro in smaller roles. It's fair to say that the movie helped make Madonna a household name.

Arquette's character is Roberta, a frustrated suburban housewife in New Jersey who follows the personal ads she reads in a newspaper, especially between Susan (Madonna), and her boyfriend, Jim (Robert Joy). Susan is constantly on the move, living a slightly less than completely honest existence, and Jim is a musician in a touring band. Roberta, seeing that Susan and Jim are planning to meet in downtown Manhattan at Battery Park, decides to travel into the city and observe their reunion. 

A series of unexpected events occur that lead to Roberta experiencing amnesia when she falls and hits her head, while Susan is trying to escape from a unscrupulous man who is pursuing her after she stole a pair of what turn out to be priceless antique earrings. When Roberta wakes up from her injury, she believes she is Susan. Meanwhile, Jim has asked his best buddy Dez (Aiden Quinn) to keep an eye on Susan while he is away with his band. Dez mistakes Roberta for Susan, and the twists and turns continue from there...

To avoid giving any more away, my advice to my readers is to locate a streaming service or DVD of the movie, and prepare to enjoy!

Ooh, la, la! Let's Eat Paris!: The Essential Guide to the World's Most Famous Food City by François Régis-Gaudry

I devoured this extraordinary guide to everything food-related (and more) in Paris. It is an incredibly enjoyable volume filled with everything you could ever possibly want to know about the city's food culture, restaurants (all levels and types), markets, the city's classic dishes, cheese, fruits and vegetables, bread and pastry, wine, and so much more.

It covers where to see and do all the things that would appeal to anyone who wants to experience Paris in all its culinary and cultural glory. There are maps, lists, timelines, insider information and how-to's. And yes, there are a number of signature recipes included.

This is not a guide to take with you as it is a big, heavy book and there is no Kindle or other digital version available as of this writing – read it before a trip, and take pictures of the most essential pages. Or if you are an armchair traveler, just read it for the fun of it and then go and eat, or cook, your favorite French dish, and follow it with a Paris-based movie or two. Suggestions from a very long list: Paris Blues (Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, and Diahann Carroll), Forget Paris (Billy Crystal, Debra Winger), Midnight in Paris (Owen Wilson), La Vie en Rose (Marion Cotillard), Before Sunset (Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke), Paris When It Sizzles (Audrey Hepburn, William Holden)...

Violence Against Girls and Women – When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McClain

Due to the subject nature (abducted/missing young girls and teens), this was a tough book to get through. There is some violence, a lot of emotional stress and accounts of emotional abuse, and the suspense of the dark plot details. The book is set in 1993, during the search for abducted and murdered Polly Klaas, a young girl from Petaluma, CA.

Anna Hart is a San Francisco detective, specializing in missing persons. After a personal tragedy, unrevealed till much later in the book, her husband insists on a separation. Anna heads to Mendocino, the small California town where she grew up with foster parents Eden and Hap, who were kind and nurturing to her after the very difficult past of her earlier childhood. She finds a small cabin in the woods to rent, and acquires a dog.

Anna becomes embroiled in the search for Cameron, a missing girl, one of a few concurrent cases in Northern California, including the Klaas case, which is receiving a lot of media attention, partly because actress Winona Ryder, who grew up in Petaluma, has taken a personal interest. 

Cameron, the adopted daughter of a former actress and her producer husband, is a beautiful but sad girl who is dealing with early trauma, much of which is unknown to her parents. During Anna's intensive detective work on the case, she uncovers much about Cameron's early childhood, and finds Cameron's protective older brother, Hector, from whom she was separated when she was adopted.

While searching for Cameron, Anna is confronted with her own unresolved, unreconciled personal tragedies, both her current situation, and the earlier ones that haunt her. She becomes reacquainted with Will, the sheriff and an old friend, and Caleb, another, whose twin sister Jenny disappeared during their high school days.

The multiple threads of Cameron's case, and that of another girl named Shannen, and Anna's inner search for resolution with her past coincide and collide throughout this novel, but it never descends into melodrama, as the situations described are all too common, and in the Klaas case, real. 

By the end, nearly all of the tensions and conflicts reach a conclusion, though author Paula McClain does leave one untied thread...which I found both surprising and disappointing.

This subject matter is very disturbing, and since we read and hear about similar cases every day, it's also an important, urgent topic, one that certainly should not be diminished or dismissed by some of our political structures, which seem, in some cases, to care less about the ongoing care and nurturing of children, than than they do about their so-called "pro-life" stance, which ends once birth takes place. Those politicians, who are limiting the rights of women and girls, and who refuse to provide adequate funding to local governments who need help combatting the type of crime addressed in this book, need to be voted out. Please think about that in this very important election year.

 

A Food Journey from Iran to Italy – Pomegranates & Artichokes by Saghar Setareh

This beautiful book will take the reader (and cook) on a journey around the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and through history. Many of the recipes are mouthwatering, the photographs by the author are both enticing and sensitive, and the commentary of her life journey from her Iranian homeland to a new life in Italy is both joyful and poignant.

Away and Back – The Train Home by Dan-ah Kim

Every so often I come across a picture book that's intended for children but touches me as an adult, and this is one of those stories. Set in Brooklyn, NY, along the route of the F train (not disclosed in the text, but I easily recognized it), it's the tender and poignant tale of Nari, a young girl in an immigrant family, who's feeling a bit frustrated by her crowded apartment home, and the city environment with all of its noise and tensions.

Her "escape" is on the elevated train that passes by her window. She imagines a ride to multiple destinations – flower gardens, woods, museums, under the ocean and up to the stars. Eventually, just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she realizes that there's "no place like home" and that her happy place is there with her family.

The illustrations are charming, and the text is just enough of a story to delight both young children, their parents, and grandparents.  

Early 20th Century Palestine in Transition – The Parisian by Isabella Hammad

The Parisian, or Al-Barisi in Arabic, is the nickname given to Midhat Kamal, a young Palestinian man who is sent to Montpellier, France by his wealthy merchant father to study medicine while World War I is upending the map of Europe and the Middle East. He lives in the home of a university professor, a widower, and his daughter Jeanette. Midhat is a sensitive and romantic man, something of a misfit, and after a falling out with the professor and Jeanette, with whom he has fallen in love, he moves on to Paris.

He returns to his home city of Nablus, north of Jerusalem, in 1919. With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled most of the Mediterranean area and Middle East from its homeland in what is now modern Turkey, England and France had divided the territory so that via the British Mandate, England occupied and administered the territories of Palestine, while France's were Greater Syria, including Lebanon. Egypt and Sudan were a protectorate of England, and Iraq also fell under the British Mandate. France also had many countries under its rule in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, etc.)

Midhat was at odds, and having left his medical studies, he goes into his father's textile business, which consists of a store and workshop in Nablus, and a larger one in Cairo. His father lives in Cairo with his second wife and family, Midhat's mother having died when he was young. Midhat lives in the family home in Nablus with his grandmother, who is like a mother to him. Eventually he marries Fatima, the beautiful daughter of an aristocratic local family.

The politics of the time are extremely complex: as the years pass, Egypt becomes independent of England, and the Arab populations in Palestine revolt, particularly against the British. Rebellions and riots break out, especially as England encourages Jewish immigration from Europe, according to the Balfour Declaration. Though Jews (and Christians) had lived in Palestine for thousands of years (and in Egypt, Syria and throughout the Middle East), they had become a minority compared to the Moslem population. As time passes, tensions increase, with targets and violence on all sides. Through the 1920s and on into the 1930s, there is constant change and turmoil, and at the same time, conditions in Germany and beyond deteriorate as the Nazis take control with the election of Hitler and passage of the Nuremberg Laws, the first step in what will become the Holocaust, though that is largely beyond the scope or interest of this novel. In fact, there is very little mention of Jews, other than as figures to be detested or feared, though Samaritans (a Jewish-related, though separate religious group) reside and are business people in Nablus.

The novel explores the life of Midhat, his family and the culture of Palestine, particularly Nablus, against this backdrop, and how events both personal and political create impact. It is powerful reading, as the book presents a less well-known picture of Palestine and the Middle East. It is also both disturbing and distressing, and very complex.

With its scope, nuance, and vast cast of characters, it is like an old-fashioned novel that may bring to mind late 19th century authors like Henry James, Edith Wharton, certain mid-twentieth century American writers, or some of the classic British, Russian and French works. With its setting 80-100 years in the past, it can feel remote, yet at the same time, it's an ominous harbinger of the current Israel-Hamas war, and other conflicts in the area provoked by terrorist groups backed by Russia and its satellites.

The book has three parts, and I found the second the most interesting overall. I felt the author was struggling a little in the third section and editing could have improved it – and it is a long book of 551 pages. It is also puzzling that the author includes a list of the very lengthy set of characters, many of whom have very similar names, at the front of the book, and a chronology of the historical and political events that shape the action at the end. Why wasn't this chronology up front? That would have been very helpful. And, nowhere is there a guide to the many Arabic and French phrases that appear throughout the text – that would have been useful too, even though I was able to puzzle many of them out without resorting to a dictionary or the internet. A map, better than the one on the end papers, would also have been a good idea. These things bring the book, and my opinion, down overall.

Murder at the Market – A Sliced Vegetarian by Liesa Malik

A light and cozy murder mystery set in a small town outside of Denver, CO. Daisy Arthur, a 50-something widow, tries to come to the rescue of Brian, a young man with developmental issues, who is accused of a brutal murder the local supermarket where he works. 

Ginny, a similarly challenged young woman, his girlfriend, is a close friend of Daisy, and also works at the market. Her father, Gabe, is the local police lieutenant who also happens to be Daisy's sometime boyfriend. He is very protective of his daughter, and also determined to prove that Brian committed the crime. His anger management issues don't help in his relationships.

Daisy gets herself into a number of compromising and dangerous situations while trying to help solve the murder and get Brian freed.

Of course, all's well that ends well. An entertaining book that is very supportive of individuals with learning disabilities and limitations, a big plus, though it is handled with a bit of a heavy hand.

Love and Duty in London – The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris

I can't imagine how such this book ever got within even being mentioned in the same sentence as the Booker Prize, unless it was as some kind of tokenism as a bone thrown to, or on the other hand, a massive rebuke of, the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of London.

That community is more or less the same as the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods I lived in close proximity to in Brooklyn for over 15 years. I had plenty of opportunities to interact with and observe the women and children (no contact with the men, of course, other than occasionally on public transportation) on errands and while shopping – I often frequented stores on some of the main Jewish shopping streets (though I also went to the Italian specialty shops). For a time, I volunteered as an English conversation group leader at the Boro Park (a very observant neighborhood) branch of the Brooklyn Public Library where I was at times viewed rather suspiciously by some of the women who gathered there. 

Chani Kaufman is nineteen, and one of the middle daughters of a very large family of all girls. Her mother seems to be perpetually pregnant and exhausted and has no time for her questions as she prepares for her wedding, which was arranged in the traditional way, by a marriage broker. Chani takes instruction in how to be a good Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) wife from Rivka (originally Rebecca), the Rebbetzin (rabbi's wife). 

Rivka is struggling in her marriage, and has recently experienced, at forty-four, a massive miscarriage. Though she is tasked in her Rebbetzin role with counseling the girls on their Torah-defined (as their sect views it) responsibilities to their prospective husbands, families, and the community, she is questioning her own life choices and faith.

While Chani is described as a little unconventional compared to her friends and classmates, as she is more willful and high-spirited, she is essentially a typically innocent and obedient Haredi girl. She is ignorant and fearful of sex and what she wants to learn from Rivka is the "how's" of intercourse. Rivka will only take her answers so far, and defers to Chani's mother, who has no time or energy to explain anything, so Chani becomes ever more anxious about what she will face on her wedding night. 

Unknown to Chani, her fiancé, Baruch, at twenty, is as ignorant and fearful as she is, but of course in their tradition, there is no discussion of such things between them, and in fact, as is typical, they have met only a few times for chaste coffee "dates" before he proposes, so they hardly know each other. Baruch is also somewhat under the thumb of his very overbearing and judgmental mother, who deems Chani, whose family is very modest and undistinguished, as wrong for him. Baruch's family is far more materially successful and his mother has her eye on a very different girl. His mother connives to stop the marriage but Chani will not be deterred, and neither will Baruch, to his credit.

All of this swirls through the book, which starts as Chani awaits the wedding ceremony to begin, and is told in rapid flashbacks, alternating Chani's story with Rivka's, and interjections for Baruch and his best friend, Avromi, who is also Rivka's son. Avromi has his own story of rebellion that strongly influences Rivka's choices, though there is much more under the surface with her. 

The book abruptly concludes after Chani and Baruch's wedding night, and Rivka's surreptitious attendance of the wedding and her departure from the ceremony.

I was really astounded by the ending. It felt as though there was another entire book to follow, or at least a few more chapters. Rivka especially seemed left adrift.

The author, a secular Jewish woman living in London, has said she was inspired to write this book by teaching English for one year in a Haredi girls' school, where she was able to observe the customs and rituals of the community. She seems both highly critical and but also admiring of the Haredi beliefs and lifestyle. Many of the characters, but particularly Chani's and Baruch's mothers, the matchmaker, and Rivka's husband, Chaim, felt very clichéd and stereotypical. Clearly the author has many unanswered questions of her own but it doesn't feel like she dealt with them by writing this book. Disappointing. 

So Many Doubts, So Many Questions – The Land of Hope and Fear, Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner

Those of us who were Jewish children born in the United States not long after end of World War II and the founding of the State of Israel grew up with a rosy, inspirational set of images and ideas that are quite different from the modern, realistic picture of the country that Isabel Kershner presents in her book. 

Obviously, it has been clear that all is not milk and honey in Israel for many years, especially since the rise of Netanyahu and the hard right that supports such policies as exempting the Haredi from military service and taxes, and promotes settlements in disputed areas. 

Kershner, a long time reporter for the New York Times, and a resident of Jerusalem, presents the history and many sides of modern Israel in great depth. She examines the waves of immigration that have made the country far more complicated and heterogeneous than it was at its founding. Reading this book is illuminating, fascinating, and more than a little depressing at times. Israel cannot be kept on a pedestal – there are so many possibilities, and so much achievement, but also so many inequalities, contradictions, and frustrations for those who are minorities or viewed as outsiders. 

The book is eye-opening and thought-provoking. It was written before the current war, and ends on a note of hope, but knowing what has transpired since it was completed, makes it all the more an illuminating, compelling and vital book for those readers who are concerned about the rightward swing in politics here in the United States and other countries, and the increase in anti-Semitic (and anti-Moslem) crimes and protests. While it has no answers, it does provide some background and reasons for the alarming trends we face in the world today.